"I get paid to talk; I don't even have the words to say what it means to me and my family," the NBA Hall of Famer and for Auburn forward said after the school unveiled a statue in his honor before the Iron Bowl on Saturday. "It's just really amazing. When I came here in 1981, I've had an amazing life and it started here."

At a ceremony outside Auburn Arena, Barkley was serenaded with kind words and jokes from his former coach, Sonny Smith, former Auburn running back and Heisman Trophy winner Bo Jackson and others.

Jackson wore a T-Shirt that told Barkley the statue of the tailback, outside Jordan-Hare Stadium, is bigger.

Nicknamed "The Round Mound of Rebound," Barkley joked that the statue, which is a replica put in place until the final 2,500-pound statue is installed, had to be skinny.

"What happened was when I met with the (sculptor), he had like 10 pictures and he was trying to take a little bit out of each one," Barkley said. "I said, 'Dude make your decision.' He says, 'What do you mean?' I said, 'Pick one picture, I'm not going go crazy over what the statue looked like.' But he was great and so we were kind of running a little bit behind time, but it's going to be like that in the end."

Barkley is the fourth former Auburn athlete to have a statue in his honor, joining former Heisman Trophy winners Jackson, Pat Sullivan and Cam Newton.

He is one four NBA players with 20,000 points, 10,000 rebounds and 4,000 assists. The Leeds native was an All-American at Auburn, a first-round draft pick, an Olympic gold medalist, the 1993 NBA MVP, an 11-time all-star and named one of the NBA's 50 greatest players in the league's 50th anniversary season.

James Crepea is an Auburn beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @JamesCrepea.